Income Protection NZ Articles

The 5 Common Mistakes Business Owners Make When Evaluating Their Insurance Requirements

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Looking over your insurance premiums each year, you may be wondering how you could save a dollar or two on your next premium. As an intangible asset, it can be difficult to put a value on insurance ... until something goes wrong and you need to claim. Insurance specialist Brett Wrightson from Brian Bushell & Associates, highlights the five most common mistakes that business owners make when evaluating their insurance requirements:

Not Understanding Their Full Risk Profile

When reviewing your insurance needs, it's essential to sit down and determine what types of events could occur in your business that would create adverse impact. From there, you need to determine what would have the biggest business impact - in terms of dollars, time and effort. Then you need to work out how to ensure that you are adequately covered against these risks.

Often policy holders will do away with one part of a policy thinking that they can save money. For example, they will go for theft, fire and glass coverage, but not take out burglary even though it's a relatively minor additional fee.

It is Murphy's Law that the one thing you leave out is the one thing you need to claim for on your insurance. And it can be for the most oddest of items. The strangest story I've heard of is a fish and chip shop that was robbed of all their frozen fish. Although it was never proven, it was suspected that a competitor fish and chip shop, just around the corner, decided that they wanted a freezer full of product to sell without the set up costs!

Not Disclosing Everything!

Yes, it is true ... if you don't disclose everything upfront when you sign up your insurance policy, the insurance company is quite within their rights to not pay out on your claim. Worst still, they won't even refund your premium paid to date. Therefore, don't hold back. Disclose anything relevant to your insurance upfront to save any drama's at a later date.

nsuring Assets at Written Down Value Instead of Replacement Value.

It is essential that you insure your assets for REPLACEMENT value. In other words, how much would it cost you to repurchase the items insured at full price. A common mistake, particularly when purchasing an existing business, is to insure the assets at the "written down" (or depreciated) value, rather than replacement cost.

Being "cheap" on their premium

Don't get caught out by trying to save yourself a few hundred dollars on your insurance premium, to the detriment of being fully insured. Being cheap now could end up costing you thousands of dollars down the track.

Not listening to your insurance broker

Your insurance broker is the best person to advise you on insurance cover. Having seen many similar businesses to yours, they have seen other business owners go through the pain that you don't need to. Your insurance broker will know what works for your type of business and how to get it for the cheapest possible price. As an insurance agent, they know the ropes and can maneuver you through the subtleties in insurance policies which will save you dollars in the long term.

It's a quick, efficient and cheap way to grow your profits immediately!

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